Last week’s launch of Mozilla Ignite made headlines. Here’s a round-up of press coverage, plus video of Mozilla Executive Director Mark Surman’s announcement at the White House.

Fast Company

Building The Next Internet, 250 Times Faster

“Developers in 25 cities are getting a playdate with GENI, an ultra-fast broadband sandbox, with the goal of building apps that push beyond the limits of today’s Net.”

techcrunch

White House Launches ‘US Ignite’ For Next-Gen Broadband & Apps, Partners With Mozilla For $500k Competition

The challenge is currently in its first stage, which invites you to submit ideas for what you would do with a 1 Gbps network. The focus here is on education, healthcare, emergency preparedness, public safety, advanced manufacturing and clean energy and transportation. The best ideas will be rewarded with a total of $15,000 in prizes.

Telecompaper

US starts Ignite project to support high-speed applications

The new US Ignite Partnership will create a national network of communities and campuses with ultra-fast broadband services at up to 1Gbps. This network will become a test-bed for designing and deploying next-generation applications to support national priorities areas such as education, healthcare, energy, and advanced manufacturing.

WebPro News

Mozilla And National Science Foundation Unite For Mozilla Ignite

Mozilla is probably the biggest proponent, outside of Google, of the power of the Web. They don’t believe in closed platforms or proprietary software. They believe in a future where everything is powered by a simple Web browser. To help advance that future, the non-profit is announcing a new contest.

Ostatic

Mozilla Launches Ignite Competition, Featuring Cash Prizes

In addition to the cash prizes, Mozilla Ignite is intended to bring together talented developers who can work in teams. A brainstorming round has already begun, and will last until August 23rd. Notably, Mozilla has also made clear that you don’t necessarily have to be a developer to participate in the brainstorming round. All you need is a good idea.

TPMIdeaLab

How Mozilla Wants To Help Ignite The Era Of High-Speed Broadband Internet

Fittingly, Mozilla, the nonprofit company behind the Firefox browser, is one of the major companies hoping to fuel the development of the new apps.

“Mozilla works to promote openness, opportunity and innovation on the Internet,” said Ryan Merkley, Mozilla’s chief operating officer, in an email to TPM. “The US Ignite program is a way for the public to directly contribute their skills and ideas to the future of the web. We believe it will drive innovation both through the apps that are created, but also through the investment in high speed infrastructure that benefits everyone.”

Digital Trends

White House, federal agencies and US industries team for ‘US Ignite’ program

Also onboard is Mozilla, which has launched its own Mozilla Ignite site, a collaboration with the National Science Foundation that’ll issue up to $500,000 in grant money to third party developers looking to devise and develop innovative apps.

Engadget

White House aims to make internet ’90 percent cheaper’ to build, teams up with Mozilla for $500k competition

Mozilla has decided to team up with the foundation to offer up a $500,000 prize pot for developers looking to help create the “internet of the future”. The challenge aims on education, healthcare, public safety and other (admittedly broad) topics, with the top ideas capable of grabbing $15,000 from the prize fund.

H-Online

Mozilla invites users to build “the internet of the future”

Mozilla and the US National Science Foundation have launched Mozilla Ignite, a web site that challenges “designers, developers and everyday people” to design web applications that will run on “the internet of the future”. The project is being supported by the White House and is part of the US Ignite initiative, which is an effort to research the implications of networks up to 250 times the speed of today’s internet.

Mozilla Foundation’s Mark Surman introducing the Mozilla Ignite Challenge at the White House:

Get Involved:

• Visit MozillaIgnite.org to learn more.
• Check out the “Ideas” section to see the latest submissions in the Brainstorming Round.
• Submit your own idea to win funding and support to make your app a reality.